REsearch

Research is Necessary
For online schooling to succeed, research is necessary to find out what works and what doesn't.  I think research should be done both in-house and by third parties for completeness.  I am a HUGE proponent of data transparency and think that the best results will come when data is in the hands of motivated unknowns.  I bet some kid in the middle of nowhere will crunch through endless numbers to find the best high school program just right for her, before dropping out to sell her analysis for millions.... if she ever gets the data that is.

Privacy and Security
Before our heroine can get the data to produce her analysis to make her millions to catch the spider, many privacy and security issues must be overcome.  How much information can be released before infringing on student privacy?   All?  Some? Filtered data?  This question gets tricky pretty quickly when you think about all of the different things that can be captured nowadays in the digital realm.  IP addresses?  Access times? Submission times? Locations?  Video? Audio?  Contact networks? family income?  Lunch program?

From a security stand point, we have to be mindful of what researchers or girls in the middle of nowhere are going to do with potentially sensitive data.  Will they sell it with other identifying information?  Will they be able to protect it if it is not truly public?  Are schools equipped and knowledgeable enough to collect and store raw data effectively?  Technology is a beast that affords people great power without full understanding.

Technology Moves Fast
With technology advancing the way that it does, it will be hard to make apples-to-apples online program comparisons through the years.  Cutting edge technologies will be recycling bin fodder in just a few years.  It was interesting reading some of the articles that spoke about online learning just a few years apart and how different they were.  This trend is most likely going to accelerate as further innovation comes to education.

Who Should Have Access?
One of the questions that I had about research was who should have access to the data?  I say everyone. Should average joes on the street have access?  Should this information be sold like market data on the stock exchanges?  Should students and parents be given incentives to participate?  Maybe for more money for the school?  Would people exchange free cellphone minutes for giving up some personal information? Should people be allowed to individually opt-out?  Should parents have access to all of their student's work?  How much information about teachers and administration can be included with student data?

Can Data be Used Across Domains?
Can an online math class be compared to an online music or humanities class?  Is that fair?  Is all of this research ultimately overly narrow with limited applicability?

These are all questions that are bouncing around my head.  This week was interesting, but not as interesting as it could be since we were mainly reading...  The next couple of sessions should be fun as we are off to explore some of these ideas with our own research!

I almost forgot my picture!

In college, I would always flip through REsearch magazine while waiting in line at Tower Records... always an interesting read.